Who benefited?

Waterloo Region Record

Re: Local robocall victims wait for answers — Jan. 18

The above news story covered a public forum held in Waterloo by the local chapter of Fair Vote Canada.

Several of the victims stated at the forum that they received bogus robocalls directing them to a new false location to cast their vote in the last federal election in 2011. Their complaints have been heard in a joint court action to get the court to order the elections nullified in six different federal ridings and to have new byelections held in six ridings where Conservatives won by slim margins. The court has yet to render its decision on the request.

Also at the forum, former Green party leader Jim Harris blamed the calls on a concerted effort by the Conservative Party of Canada to suppress voter turnout.

There have been a number of other robocall scandals heard or being heard, but only one where a verdict has been delivered — and guess what? It involved the federal Liberals. The Liberal riding association in Guelph, on behalf of MP Frank Valeriote, was fined $4,900 in August 2012 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a less serious and unrelated robocall violation during the same election campaign.

Now what if opposition supporters were the perpetrators and actual beneficiaries of these robocalls and not the Conservatives?

Allegations have been made that mostly opposition supporters were targeted with these false robocalls, advising them on or near election day to go to a false location to vote.

Would these false robocalls be intended to remind these opposition supporters if they had forgotten to vote to get them out by checking out both locations to find out the right location and then vote for the opposition party they had intended to vote for all along?